Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes) Mary Robinson

November 9, 1990 (Photo credit: National Library of Ireland on The Commons)

Symbols give us our identity, our self image, our way of explaining ourself to ourselves and to others. Symbols in turn determine the kind of stories we tell; and the stories we tell determine the kind of history we make and re-make.
From Mary Robinson‘s Inaugural speech in 1990 when she was sworn in as Ireland’s seventh president.

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4 comments on “Quotes for Writers (and people who like quotes) Mary Robinson”

Thank you for liking the post and the hat…Mary Robinson was a great speech maker – still is I imagine in her role as UN Human Rights Commissioner but I don’t come across her words so often..
The great thing was that as a radical lawyer no one expected her to win the election. A year before she had defended students prosecuted for promoting abortion in a country where divorce & contraception was still illegal.
“I was elected by men and women of all parties and none….And above all by the women of Ireland — Mná na hÉireann — who instead of rocking the cradle rocked the system, and who came out massively to make their mark on the ballot paper, and on a new Ireland.”
Great stuff.